A standard economy-type passenger seat, for example for an aircraft, comprises of a seat bottom and a reclining seat back, supported by structural frames mounted on laterally spaced-apart legs. When a larger seating angle is achieved by reclining the seatback, the personal space of the rear passenger is significantly affected.
To eliminate this reduced rear passenger space problem, fixed back shell seats have been developed to achieve a seating angle variation by only sliding the seat pan forward. However, this compromises the passenger knee space significantly, since the seat pan moves towards the front passenger seat.
To achieve a balance between the reduced rear passenger space and the reduced passenger knee space, seat pans have been developed to include an articulating feature with coupled, simultaneous movement of the seat back and the seat pan. This can allow for a larger seating angle variation to be achieved without compromising too much of either the rear passenger's personal space or the passenger's knee space. An articulating passenger seat can allow a passenger to have a more comfortable seating experience by having the seat bottom and seat back articulate together. Usually the articulating seat pan slides forward whilst the seatback reclines.
Embodiments of the present invention seek to provide at least an alternative to existing solutions for addressing the above mentioned problems.